For many years, baseball shoes have used metal cleats or spikes of blade-like nature, both on the soles and heels of the shoes. In general, said spikes have been arranged respectively on said soles and heels in triangular fashion. The spikes on the soles of the shoe are generally located so that at least a pair of the triangular pattern of spikes are adjacent the ball of a foot when in the shoe and all three of the spikes of said pattern are intended for effective gripping of the ground surface, especially when running between bases or in the field.
The cleats on the heel also are effective and necessary to give good footing, especially when batting, to prevent slipping of the feet but, in many instances, the blade-like metal spikes on the heel of baseball shoes are somewhat lethal to personnel and also damaging to physical property, such as base bags, especially when a player is sliding into a base, heel first in order to tag the bag before the player can be tagged by an opposing player. Quite frequently, the metal spikes conventionally employed on baseball shoes tend to become sharpened at the edge and actually have cutting capacity and many baseball players have been badly injured by cutting when engaged in a close play by a runner sliding into a base contacting the leg or foot of the baseman and, similarly, baseball bags conventionally are covered with canvas and the sharp heel spikes in particular, when engaging said canvas, have a tendency to rip the same.
To obviate the foregoing, the present invention provides a mixture of different types of ground-engaging spikes or cleats described in detail hereinafter, the components thereof which are used in combination individually are known in the prior art, but not in such combination. For example, plug-like cleats are well known in football shoes and are employed both on the forward portion of the sole of a football shoe, as well as on the heel thereof. Frequently, only relatively few are used on the heels, such as of the order of two or three, but a greater number are used on the sole of the football shoe.
Presumably for purposes of economy, interchangeable type ground-engaging elements have been provided heretofore and comprise the subject matter of prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,442,033 to Hilburn, Jr., dated May 6, 1969, and 3,526,976 to Jacobs, dated Sept. 8, 1970. In these patents, sets of either baseball or football cleats or spikes are proposed, the same being interchangeable in suitable sockets formed in the sole and heel of the sports shoe, but a mixture of the same is not suggested.
Similarly, a mixture of plug-like cleats on the heel and different configurations of non-sharp ground-engaging members on the sole thereof comprise the subject matter of prior U.S. Pat. No. 2,678,507 to Dye, dated May 18, 1954. None of the foregoing patents suggest the possibility of a mixture of metal spikes and cleats with relatively blunt plug-like shapes respectively on the soles and heels of an athletic shoe, particularly adapted for baseball use, as in the present invention, details of which are set forth below.